Testimonies of women in war-torn Colombia win APC funding

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By Colnodo/CIASE for APC

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, 29 October 2010

In one of Colombia’s war-torn areas, women are documenting their testimonies of violence and creating short radio programmes about their life and experiences; meanwhile, in Bogotá’s urban areas, displaced women are learning how to conduct online awareness campaigns about violence against women; and members of the lesbian, gay and transgendered community are using web2.0 to advocate for peaceful, non-violent relationships. The Take Back the Tech! Fund will sponsor eight organisations that work with women and ICT to help put an end to violence against women.

Testimonies of women in war-torn Colombia win APC funding

In Magdalena del Medio, a war-torn area in central Colombia, women are documenting their testimonies of violence and creating short radio programmes about their life and experiences. The Take Back the Tech! Fund will sponsor ten women to gather testimonies, convert them to radio format and broadcast them on radio stations and on the internet.

TAKEBACKTHETECH! FUNDWINNERS IN COLOMBIA

Asociación Femenina Integral Comunitaria (AFIC) In Magdalena del Medio, a war-torn area in central Colombia, women are documenting their testimonies of violence and creating short radio programmes about their life and experiences. The small grant will sponsor ten women to gather testimonies to convert them to radio format and broadcast them on radio stations and on the internet.

Proempresas is working with ten women’s organisations in the city of Cúcuta, in Colombia’s Northern the state of Santander to create a network for the prevention of violence against women (VAW). Using the grant, the group will create a social network of, and for, women in vulnerable situations and who have been displaced in order to find new strategies to prevent VAW and raise awareness around the issue.

Fundación Azul will work with 45 leaders from Las Casas de Igualdad de Oportunidades- CIO – (equal opportunity organisations) in Bogotá. They will team women do use ICT in a strategic way to prevent violence against girls and women in urban areas by creating online awareness campaigns.

Asociación Yakojumo LGBT This lesbian group in Bogotá will train 50 women around lesbian, gay, and transgender rights and how to use web 2.0 tools. The group will also address the issue of violence against women and how to prevent it by creating a virtual space for LGBT people, where they will be able to communicate with others and advocate for peaceful, non-violent relationships.

Fundación Mujer y Futuro Santander Representatives from 28 social organisations that form four women’s networks will be trained to use ICTs strategically to prevent violence against women. They will learn to monitor media, diffuse information, and produce resources to prevent the different types of gender-related violence.

CENTRAP will use ICTs to produce radio programmes and cell phone message to prevent and help stop violence against women. Fifteen women will create and lead a VAW prevention campaign in a virtual radio station, Tertuliando, which will be rebroadcast by other community radio stations in metropolitan Bogotá. Short anti-VAW messages will also be sent via cell phone as part of another campaign.

Asociación Agropecuaria Las Quince Familias (ASOQUIFA) Representatives from a community of Afro-Colombians will train women and girls on how to prevent violence against women by using ICTs to share information and experiences with other community organisations and local schools and will involve 400 women and girls. APC has already worked with this community through our gender evaluation work.

The Take Back the Tech! fund is a part of the APC women’s programme Take Back the Tech! to end violence against women project, which falls under the APC’s work towards achieving the third Millennium Development Goal on equality for women. A total of $20 000 dollars have been disbursed to twelve country partners for redistribution to local and grassroots organisations that are working with women and ICTs.

Photo by Centrap. Women in Colombia learn to use ICTs to lead a prevention campaign.